Christmas Adjournment

Of course I will report to the Home Office what hon. Members have said. The point that I was making to the hon. Member for Southend, West is that the situation is not one of doom and gloom; crime is down in this country. The hon. Member for Southend, West also talked about the seriousness of liver disease. I can only assume that unlike the rest of the country, he has not recently heard the public health Minister talking about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. I hope that he is aware of the fact that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has undertaken a further review of Remploy factories and has reprieved many of them. I am sorry if the one in his constituency is not among them. My hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Shona McIsaac), an extremely hard-working Member of Parliament, demonstrated in her speech that she understands and cares about her constituents. She spoke about the Post Office and police pay, but mostly about the fire stations in Waltham and Immingham. She was concerned by proposals to downgrade the fire stations. She pointed out that good fire stations are particularly important because of the heavy industry nearby. I will draw her remarks to the attention of the Department for Communities and Local Government. The hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) spoke about the financial effectiveness of the London borough of Havering. She felt that Havering has been treated unfairly by the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of the application of the grant formula. I am sure that Havering has had its proper allocation according to the formula. I am quite sure that there is in no sense any campaign against Havering, but I will draw her remarks to the attention of the DCLG, and I will draw her concern about postcodes to the attention of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The hon. Member for Guildford (Anne Milton) told us a story about her mother taking her clothes off in the Mall when she was a member of the land army. I can only say that the hon. Lady is obviously a chip off the old block—although I hope that she is not going to do that in the Chamber now. She spoke of her concerns about overdevelopment in her constituency. I understand that the matter is fraught, since my mother-in-law is one of her constituents. Nevertheless, I remind the hon. Lady that 10 years ago the amount of development on brownfield sites was 56 per cent., and it is now up to74 per cent. The hon. Lady also spoke about her local hospital trust and said how much she wanted to see her local hospital become a foundation trust. She has written to the Department of Health to seek a meeting. We will follow that up on her behalf. She, too, was concerned about the local authority grant settlement in Surrey. Local authority grant settlements are the result of a sort of Heath Robinson formula that takes account of not only income, of which she made much, but needs. The hon. Member for Reading, East (Mr. Wilson) spoke about children with special needs at the Sun club in his constituency. He raised the issue of gaps in provision once children reach 16 or 18. He was pointing to the important contribution that the voluntary sector can make in supporting those families. He told the House an alarming story about the death by drowning of a young man, Tyson Brown. That sounded very serious, and I will pass those concerns on to the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. Finally, the hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Mr. Vara) gave a typically polished and witty performance. I hope that people will be able to get new jobs. The closure programme is phased over some time, and there is a partnership of the County Durham Development Company, the local skills council and the local authority that will provide training for people. I would not want people to think that that was the total sum of my constituency. It is an extremely nice place to spend Christmas, whether that involves joining in with traditional carols played by brass bands at one end of the constituency or going for walks in the area of outstanding natural beauty at the other. I wish all hon. Members a happy Christmas. I hope that they will have as pleasant and restful a time as I intend to. I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the other Deputy Speakers, Mr. Speaker and all staff who work for us in the Palace of Westminster for everything that you and they have done for us in the past year.